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Bird's Eye View. East From Monument. 



Peace Monument. 






THE CITY BEAUTIFUL? 



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Descriptive Ten by Charles B Reynolds 



PUBLISHED <5 COPVRIGHTED fiy 

<^e B.S.REYNOLDS COMPANY 

WASHINGTON , D.C. 



THE CAPITOL. 



THE United States Capitol has place among the great architectural 
achievements of the world; its beauty of design and mag- 
nificence of proportions command universal admiration. To an 
American it makes direct and powerful appeal as the seat of govern- 
ment. In the far extending marble walls, the columned porticoes, 
the majestic dome uplifted against the shy, in the whole stately fabric, 
he sees a material and visible embodiment of the soul of the nation. 
The entire length is 751 feet, the width 350 feet, and the Dome rises 
300 feet. The corner stone was laid by Washington in 1793, the 
central building was occupied in 1827, and the Senate and House 
extensions in 1857 and 1859. 



.OOl.A.KI 5 




THE CAPITOL. 



THE CAPITOL FROM THE WEST. 

'T'HE Capitol is set on a hill overlooking the amphithea- 
ter of the Potomac. From the West front the 
view extends over the far-flung city and the encircling 
hills to Arlington beyond the river. The central building 
contains the Supreme Court Room, Statuary Hall and the 
Rotunda. In the north wing is the Senate Chamber, and 
in the south the Hall of Representatives. Ample grounds 
with noble trees and sloping lawns secure for the Capitol 
an air of retirement and aloofness from the turmoil of 
the town. 




THE CAPITOL FROM THE WEST 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

AS here seen from the Capitol, the out-standing features of the 
Library of Congress are the central entrance pavilion, with its 
Corinthian columns, the gold dome and the finial Torch of Science, 
ever burning. The windows of the facades carry carved heads of the 
races of men , and in those of the pavilion are colossal portrait busts 
of authors. Above the entrances are sculptured Literature, Science 
and Art; the bronze doors personify Tradition, Writing and Printing. 
Thus the exterior adornment is everywhere suggestive of the purpose 
of the Library Building; and prepares one for the gorgeous and daz- 
zling splendor within — the polished marbles and pictured walls of 
vestibule and hall and corridor and pavilion, and the great central 
rotunda reading room. 




LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



WHITE HOUSE. 

'"THE White House seen through the trees from Penn- 
sylvania Avenue is one of the most familiar of 
American scenes. The dignity and grace of the edifice 
are enhanced by the spacious lawns and the fine old trees. 
A peculiar human interest attaches to the White House 
as the home of the President's Family; and the successive 
changes of occupancy have filled its past with historic 
incident. It is the oldest public building here; the corner- 
stone was laid by Washington in 1792, and it has been 
the Executive Mansion from the time of John Adams. 
Presidents come and Presidents go; the White House 
endures to welcome the coming, speed the going guest. 



I 




WHITE HOUSE 



WHITE HOUSE-EAST ENTRANCE. 

T^HE East Entrance is the one most familiar to the visitor 
who comes to the White House not on pubiic busi- 
ness but as the possessor of a one hundred-millionth share 
of ownership in the Nation's domestic establishment. 
The colonnaded approach leads to the basement corridor. 
Here are portraits of the wives of the Presidents and in 
a room opening off the corridor is displayed an interesting 
exhibit of the china table services used by successive mis- 
tresses of the White House. 






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PENNSYLVANIA AVENUE. 

PENNSYLVANIA Avenue is one of the great historic 
streets of the world. It connects the Capitol and 
the White House — the Legislative and Executive Branches 
of the Government. Along its broad expanse and mag- 
nificent distances is the route of the Inaugural procession; 
and the Avenue is associated with numberless military, 
political and civic parades. This is the conventional view 
from the Treasury at Fifteenth Street, looking east, with 
the Itome of the Capitol closing the vista, an airy vision 
in the distance. 




PENNSYLVANIA AVENUE. 



UNITED STATES TREASURY. 

T"HE United States Treasury Building is of the monu- 
■*■ mental type. With a width of 250 feet on Penn- 
sylvania Avenue, and a depth of 450 feet, it covers an 
entire block. The features of the exterior which give it 
dignity are the great colonnade of Ionic columns extending 
along the Fifteenth Street front and the columned porticoes 
of the other fronts. The impression of massiveness and 
security which is given from without is intensified when 
in the course of the conventional Treasury tour we pen- 
etrate the dark corridors and narrow passage ways in the 
lower regions of money vaults and time locks. 




UNITED STATES TREASURY. 



NEW BUREAU OF 
ENGRAVING AND PRINTING. 

A LTHOUGH the Bureau of Engraving and Printing 
is an immense manufacturing establishment, and in 
plan and construction has been made a model factory plant, 
the artistic treatment of the exterior has been so happy 
that the building has part in the composition of a very 
charming picture. The Bureau is a branch of the Treasury; 
here are manufactured the National bank notes and bonds, 
the postage and revenue stamps; military, naval and dip- 
lomatic commissions; passports and other documents. 




THE NEW BUREAU OF PRINTING AND ENGRAVINC ON POTOMAC PARK AND BASIN 



STATE, WAR AND NAVY BUILDING. 

TN Pennsylvania Avenue, beginning with Fifteenth Street, 
opposite Lafayette Park, grouped together are three 
edifices devoted to the executive branch of the Govern- 
ment—the Treasury, the White House, and the State, 
War and Navy Building. The State, War and Navy 
Building is a great Office Building. With a frontage of 342 
feet on the Avenue, and a depth of 565 feet, it has two 
miles of marble halls and 500 rooms. As the name im- 
plies, it provides for the three departments, the War 
Department occupying the West wing, the Navy Depart- 
ment the East, and the State Department the South. 




STATE. WAR AND NAVY BUILDING 



UNION STATION. 

T^HE Union Station, designed by Daniel H. Burnham 
and constructed of Vermont "white marble, is mon- 
umental in plan, and of such magnitude that it is to be 
described only in an array of figures. The length of 700 
feet and the width of 443 feet give it an area exceeding 
that of the Capitol. The Main Waiting Room is 220x130 
feet with a height of 120 feet. The Passenger Concourse, 
760 feet in length, is the largest room in the world under 
one roof. An army of 50,000 men could stand on the 
floor. In the Plaza is the Columbus Monument. 




UNION STATION 



CITY POST OFFICE. 

j HE City Post Office is a fine example of the new type 
of public buildings, planned to insure the most con- 
venience and efficiency in the use to which they are 
devoted. The building material is white marble. On the 
Capitol Park front extends a line of columns; and inserted 
over the entrances are the sentiments chosen by Dr. Eliot; 
' 'Carrier of news and knowledge, instrument of trade 
and industry, promoter of mutual acquaintance, of peace 
and good-will among men and nations." "Messenger of 
sympathy and love, servant of parted friends, consoler of 
the lonely, bond of the scattered family, enlarger of com- 
mon life. 




NEW POST OFFICE 



WASHINGTON MONUMENT. 

'"THE Washington Monument is a shaft of stone rising 
*~ from the Mall 555 feet in air. It is the highest work 
of masonry in the world. It is 55 feet square at the base, 
tapering to 34 feet at the top. The walls are 15 feet in 
thickness at the entrance, and 18 inches at the top of the 
shaft. The facing is of pure white marble. From what- 
ever point it is beheld, the prodigious shaft is an impressive 
spectacle. It seems to be uplifted above the plane of 
human achievement and to belong rather with the great 
phenomena of nature — the mighty wind, the sunshine and 
the shadow, the driving mist, the clouds and the shy. 



SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION. 

FrlE dark toned towers of the Smithsonian Institution, standing 
■*- out above the green mass of the Mall, make one of the most 
picturesque and grateful of Washington scenes. The architectural 
design. Romanesque of the eleventh and twelfth centuries, denom- 
inates the structure as the home of "an establishment for the increase 
and diffusion of knowledge among men." The Smithsonian is a 
leader among the learned institutions of the world. Devoted to 
stimulating and encouraging scientific investigations and study, it 
carries on explorations and expeditions in different parts of the 
world; gathers collections which are housed here and in the National 
Museum; publishes reports and scientific papers, and in many 
different ways adds to the knowledge and promotes the progress of 
the work! . 




SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION. 



MUNICIPAL BUILDING. 

'"PHE Municipal Building, fronting on Pennsylvania 
Avenue at 14th Street, houses the several depart- 
ments of the Government of the District of Columbia. 
It is of white marble and in design and decoration is typi- 
cal of the architectural monuments which mark the 
development of the city. 




MUNICIPAL BUILDING. 



CORCORAN ART GALLERY. 

'T'HE Corcoran Art Gallery on Seventeenth Street is of 
Georgia white marble. Below the elaborately carved 
cornice runs a frieze bearing the names of great artists, 
and the entrance is guarded by sculptured lions which are 
replicas of the lions of Canova, at the tomb of Clement 
XIII in St. Peter's Rome. The Gallery takes its name 
from William W. Corcoran, a citizen of Washington, by 
whom it was founded and endowed. The large collections 
of paintings and sculpture give it a place among the most 
important art institutions of the country. It maintains 
the Corcoran School of Art. 




CORCORAN ART GALLERY 



RED CROSS MEMORIAL. 

"PO the group of buildings which give Seventeenth Street 
its architectural splendor has been added the Red 
Cross Memorial, devoted to the commemoration of the 
heroic women of the Civil War. The building material is 
white marble. The great assembly room is entirely in 
white with crimson hangings, the colors of the Red Cross. 
Significant features of the Memorial are the three stained 
glass windows provided by the Women's Relief Associa- 
tion of the North and the Daughters of the Confederacy 
of the South, representing these Northern and Southern 
organizations and the Red Cross. 







RED CROSS MEMORIAL 



MEMORIAL CONTINENTAL HALL. 

T*HE Memorial Continental Hall, one of the notable 
group of structures on Seventeenth Street, is the 
home of the National Society of the Daughters of the 
Revolution. It is used as an Administration Building, 
and the Society's annual congresses are held here. The 
building was designed by Edward Pearce Casey of Library 
of Congress fame, who found his inspiration in the archi- 
tectural development of the American Colonial period. 
The Hall embodies in high degree the best elements of 
the Colonial style. The thirteen fluted columns of the 
south portico are memorials of the original Thirteen States, 




MLMOKIAL CONTINENTAL HALL 



PAN-AMERICAN UNION. 

J HE Home of the Pan-American Union has aptly been termed 
-*- a Capitol of the American Republics in the Capital of the U.S. 
The building was erected at a cost of one million dollars contributed 
by Andrew Carnegie and the 21 nations forming the Union. In de- 
sign and adornment the Latin-American building is significant of its 
purpose. On the front are groups representing North America and 
South America, and panels representing Washington's Farewell to 
his Generals and the meeting of the two great South American libera- 
tors, Bolivar and San Martin. Two notable features within the 
building are the typical Latin-American patio, with fountain and 
tropical foliage, and the magnificent Hall of the Americas, an assem- 
bly room unsurpassed in this country. 




PAN-AMERICAN UNION. 



LINCOLN MEMORIAL. 

'"THE Lincoln Memorial occupies a site in the Mall, on 
the axis of the Capitol, the Washington Monument, 
and the projected "Washington- Arlington Bridge over the 
Potomac. The architect was Henry Bacon. The Me- 
morial is a structure of white marble surrounded by Doric 
columns 40 feet in height, and 31 columns representing 
the 31 states of the Union at the time of Lincoln's death. 
In this setting is placed the bronze statue of Lincoln by 
Daniel C. French. On the walls, lettered in enduring 
brass, are inscribed the Second Inaugural Address and the 
Gettysburg Address. 




LINCOLN MEMORIAL 



OLD NATIONAL MUSEUM. 

HHE National Museum is a depository of all objects of 
art and of foreign and curious research, and of nat- 
ural history, plants and geological and mineralogical spec- 
imens belonging to the United States. The collections em- 
brace millions of objects illustrating in endless array the 
fields of natural history and of human development. Par- 
ticularly complete are the collections relating to the zoolo- 
gy, geology, botany, ethnology and archaeology of the 
United States. This is the old Museum Building which 
was opened in 1881. 




OLD NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



U. S. PATENT OFFICE. 

r*HE building of the Department of the Interior is 
popularly called the Patent Office, since it is best 
known by reason of its association with the inventive gen- 
ius and the wonderful industrial development of the United 
States. The fine portico on F St. is adorned with Doric- 
columns which were copied in pattern and dimensions 
from those of the Parthenon. 




U. S. PATENT OFFICE 



THOMAS CIRCLE. 

pHOMAS Circle is one of the most pleasing of the 
open spaces which, with their memorial bronzes and 
settings of shrub and flower, contribute so much to Wash- 
ington's attractiveness. The park takes its name from 
Ward's equestrian statue of Gen. Geo. H. Thomas, a 
tribute provided by the Army of Cumberland. Facing the 
circle is the Lutheran Memorial Church. The radiating 
streets ere Fourteenth Street on the left and Vermont 
Avenue on the right. 




THOMAS CIRCLE 



THE SOLDIERS HOME. 

CROM the Capitol one may see on the rim of the hills 
in the north the United States Soldiers' Home with 
the Norman tower of the Scott building shining out in clear 
relief. The Home is for the benefit of men who have 
been honorably discharged from the regular army, or have 
been disabled in the service. In addition to the main 
building named for General Winfield Scott, are others 
which bear the names of Sherman, Sheridan and Robert 
Anderson. The Home is delightfully situated in a noble 
estate of rolling contours, majestic trees and superb views. 




SOLDIERS' HOME. 



NEW NATIONAL MUSEUM. 

T^HE white granite structure of the new National Mu- 
seum in the Mall is a building of magnificent propor- 
tions, having a frontage of 561 ft. , a depth of 365 ft. , and 
a height of 82 ft. The cost was $3,500,000.00. In design 
and arrangement it represents the most advanced develop- 
ment of Museum planning. It houses the great Govern- 
ment collections of natural history, geology, ethnology and 
archaeology, and there are exhibited here the paintings be- 
longing to the National Gallery of Art. 




NEW NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



U. S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE. 

T~*HE Government Printing Office is reputed to be the 
largest and most completely equipped printing estab- 
lishment in existence. The payroll aggregates $4,000,000 
a year, and the annual printed product is of amazing bulk. 
Here are printed the Congressional Record, reporting the 
proceedings and debates of Congress (including the inor- 
dinately prolix speeches which were never actually spoken 
by the Honorable members who father them in the Record), 
the Patent Office Gazette, the Smithsonian Reports, the 
Agricultural Bulletins, and whatever in the vast business 
of the Government finds its way into print. 




U. S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE. 



PENSION OFFICE. 

TN the immense red brick building in Judiciary Square are 
filed millions of individual war records, and here are 
administered the activities of the Pension Office. There 
is no pretension of architectural grace, it is just a huge 
building, but in the sculptured frieze which is the sole 
adornment of the exterior we may find eloquent suggestions 
of the services and sacrifices of the veterans to whose in- 
terests the office is devoted. Within is a glass-roofed 
court, on whose floor, on occasions of the Inaugural Balls, 
room has been found for 18,000 persons. 




PENSION OFFICE. 



CUSTIS-LEE MANSION, ARLINGTON. 

'T'HE Custis-Lee Mansion, on Arlington Heights, across 
the Potomac from Washington, is one of the historic 
houses of America. It was built in 1802 by Washington's 
adopted son, G. W. Parke Custis, who made it renowned 
for a half-century as a home of Virginia hospitality. It 
descended to the children of Mary Custis Lee, wife of 
Colonel Robert E. Lee, who lived here, and then, by a 
series of romantic circumstances growing out of the vicissi- 
tudes of the Civil War, it came eventually into the 
possession of the United States. Today it is surrounded 
by the sleeping hosts of the Arlington National Cemetery. 



1 1 *,:41 




CUSTIS-LEE MANSION. 



WASHINGTON'S MANSION, 
MT. VERNON, VA. 

^/WASHINGTON'S Mansion at Mount Vernon on 
the Potomac is in the possession and keeping of 
the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association of the Union. 
Whatever changes in minor details the years may have 
brought, one feels that in its larger aspects the scene is 
today as it was in Washington's time; and a visit to Mount 
Vernon does not fail to bring Washington, the historic 
character, closer to us as Washington, the man. The 
Mansion overlooks the Potomac. Not far from the house 
is the Tomb. 




WASHINGTON'S MANSION. MOUNT VERNON. VA. 



POST OFFICE DEPARTMENT. 

F'HE huge bulk of the Post Office Department, with the 
tower rising 300 feet above the street, is a command- 
ing feature of Pennsylvania Avenue. The gray granite 
building houses the branch of the government with whose 
workings we are in constant personal touch. Here is the 
control of a vast system, whose service extends to every 
human habitation in the land; from here is out stretched 
the hand that rings a million doorbells every day. 



WHITE HOUSE, SOUTH FRONT. 

T^HE President's grounds stretch south to merge with 
the Mall; looking out upon them is the rounded 
balcony with its colonnade, one of the most pleasing 
features of the White House. The grounds are beautiful 
with wealth of tree and shrub and flower bed; a fountain 
reflects columns and cornice, and there are well-kept 
lawns, where on Easter Monday the Washington children 
celebrate their Easter egg-rolling frolics. 




WHITE HOUSE. SOUTH FRONT. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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